


When My Baby's Beside Me

by MayRoss



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Mutant Powers, Mutant Reader, Sexual Tension, Short Story, Telekinesis, past relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 20:59:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 7,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14505369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayRoss/pseuds/MayRoss
Summary: Tony and Y/N used to be in love, until Tony blew it. Badly. Good endings usually happen, it's just a matter of getting there.(title based on the song by Big Star)





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How the story of Tony and Y/N started, a long time ago in college.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was taken from another story I wrote but I felt like there could be an alternative universe where Tony and Y/N do find each other again. So if you've read this in the other story, feel free to skip it!
> 
> Attention - light mentions of smut in this one! if you don't like any of that don't read!

It wasn’t the first time Tony had been called into the dean’s office. But this day would be different and it would change his life forever.  
“Mr Stark,” the dean said when Tony entered the room, not looking up from his paperwork.  
“Sir,” Tony replied and walked up to the desk. The dean just waved for him to take a seat. About a minute passed when the dean finally put down his pen and folded his hands, looking at Tony. “How are you doing, Mr Stark?”  
“Well, sir, thank you. How are you?”  
“I’m good. I’ve asked you here for a particular reason today.” The dean leaned back in his chair. “This is a very personal matter for me so please forgive me if I am not my usual self,” he said, sitting back in his chair and running his hand through his hair.  
Tony was stunned but before he could say anything the dean let out a long sigh.  
“You are one of our best students; the best, if you could excuse my lack of professionalism.” Tony opened his mouth to thank him but he silenced him immediately. “This is about my daughter,” the dean started, “since birth, she has had a … gift. Others call it a condition, but I know she’s uniquely and remarkably gifted. She’s your age and she has been training day and night for as long as I can remember.” The dean’s eyes wandered and he seemed lost in thought.  
“What do you want me to do?” Tony asked quietly, stunned. “I need you to figure out the extent of her power. I need you to help her reach her full potential. She won’t rest until she has got it all figured out. Also, I think she needs someone to ground her. She doesn’t have many friends, and I think you two would get along.”  
Tony just nodded and the dean looked over.  
“Do you think you could do this for me?”  
He looked so helpless and confused Tony could not resist. Taking this opportunity might help him with his dissertation, even though he didn’t think it would. So he nodded.  
“It would be my honour, sir.”  
The dean just nodded and looked at his watch. “I need to leave now, I have an appointment in 10 minutes. Meet her in the music room in the west wing on Wednesday at around 3 pm.”  
Tony nodded and walked out, saying goodbye to the secretary and as soon as he was in his room he just let out a sigh and exclaimed a loud, exasperated “what the fuck?!?”.

On Wednesday he slowly made his way to the music room. He had never even been near there or even seen someone in there, which is why it puzzled him that she would meet him there.  
He had mulled over his conversation with the dean since it happened. Every day he found new meanings and he had more and more questions. And something in him told him he would regret taking this on. He wished he had said no. That he was too busy with the uni work he was already assigned or something stupid like that. Even his roommate didn’t understand why he did it. “This is not like you, Tony. Letting the dean make you do more and more work,” Hector had mindlessly muttered, his head buried in a book.  
“You gonna go?”  
And Tony had nodded, but now he wasn’t so sure. Something about all of this made him want to turn around and fake an illness. But then again he never shied away from a problem.  
When he got closer to the room he suddenly heard classical music. It seemed to be coming from the music room and when he got closer he saw that the door was ajar. Did someone have practice? Did the dean mess up the time?  
Peeking inside he saw a single, blonde girl crosslegged on the grand piano. She had her eyes closed and a slight smile graced her lips.  
When he looked to the right he expected to see about for musicians but what he saw made him gasp and step a few steps backwards. A string quartet was hovering in the air.  
That must have been her. The dean did say something about a condition.  
He walked closer again and stepped inside. It took all of his courage to close the door behind him and lean against the wall. All his cockiness had suddenly disappeared. She, however, gave him more time to compose himself, calmly finishing the song.  
When she was done she opened her eyes and the instruments calmly flew back into their cases.  
“Schubert,” she said.  
Tony looked at her with wide eyes. She was still not looking at him, staring at her hands. “It’s Schubert. The piece I just played. Did you like it?”  
That’s when her eyes met his. They were of such an electrifying grey colour he started stuttering. “Um … ye .. yes. It was … great, honestly.”  
She slid off the piano with such grace, hovering in the air for a few moments before she hit the ground. Mesmerised by the movement of her body he awkwardly stepped forward extending his hand. “Tony Stark.”  
She reached out and shook it gently.  
She smiled at him mischievously, like she knew something he didn’t, before replying.  
“Y/N.”  
A sudden rush of positive feelings overcame him. That finally relaxed him to the point where he could flash her one of his cocky smiles.“This is going to be good.”

Love had come easy for the both of them. The more time they spent together, the more they talked late into the night in the bar that soon became their usual. Sitting at the bar until Dave called last round, soft jazz playing in the background. Y/N sipping her wine, Tony nipping at his whisky and coke. The dim lights and fairy lights that were strewn about the place twinkling lazily.  
Tony remembered the moment when he realised that, what he first presumed to be a crush, had turned into a love so deep and genuine it made his skin tingle.  
It was the day before Christmas and it had started snowing thick, pillowy snowflakes. She was waiting for him outside after his last lecture of the day and she was beaming. Wrapped up in layers and layers of grey wool, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet.  
He walked up to her and kissed her cheek. When he pulled back he was stunned into silence. A few snowflakes had congregated in her hair, her cheeks were pink and her eyes were twinkling.  
She was chatting away and giggling but all he could do was smile and look at her. Somewhere close by a few students were playing “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Warm” on trumpets and horns and she took his hand. When he didn’t move fast enough she started dancing through the snow, twirling and flying a few inches in the air every now and again. He could not tell if she realised she was doing it. She seemed so happy and elated.  
The sun had been setting when he left the building and now the fairy lights on the trees and every streetlight on campus had turned on and she ran up to him, coming to a halt in front of him. “Why so rigid? Is something up?” she asked, furrowing her brow in concern.  
“I think I just realised something,” Tony said softly and she looked at him questioningly. “I love you.”  
When he said it he started to smile. He brought his hand up to her face and stroked her cheek gently. She leaned into it and for a second he could not believe what he was seeing.  
She gently took his face into her hands and stepped closer, until their noses were almost touching.  
“I love you, too, Tony.”  
And with that, she kissed him so passionately his arms encased her hips and pulled her against him. When they broke apart they were breathing heavily and giggling. “You know what?” he asked her, smirking. Y/N felt like her legs were going to give in, melting underneath his gaze.  
“This is going to be good.”

It was not her innocence that he loved, because she was not innocent. She could be hard and unforgiving at times, especially about other people. When someone insulted her she would strike back, violently and without remorse. If he hadn’t known her as well as he did he would’ve been scared. But when things like that happened he let her do whatever she would and stepped back - and afterwards, he would hold her in his arms and kiss her. Yet, she was one of the most gentle people he had ever met. Since he had met her there were always flowers. One day, suddenly on his desk, in her room in the gigantic house of her father, and, in the summer, in her hair. They were swinging freely and her hair looked like liquid gold, trying to rival her smile with its radiance. The way the snow excited her on the day he first told her he loved her was the way she was with everything. Passionate. When they were working together on her powers and when they were making love. More often than not she would just take off her clothes and lie naked on the fur rug in her room. Lying there, perfectly still, softly humming to herself, she was so distracting that he gave up on his work, walked over to her and lost himself in the endless pleasures of her body. More often than not would she pull him into an empty classroom or bathroom and have her will with him. She was everything he had ever needed.  
She grounded him, got him away from his work, from the pressure that his father put on him and took him out dancing or drinking. When he got tense she would kiss him senseless and hold him while he muttered to no one in particular. But she always listened. When he went home he was gushing about her to Jarvis in a way that made the old butler smile softly.

Sometimes they were working until late into the night. Stacks of books and their two laptops surrounding them, Tony was trying to understand the extent of Y/N’s powers. What he had thought would be a nuisance and a waste of time soon became an emotional case for him. Most of his spare time he spent with Y/N, even when they were not working.  
Nothing compared to the moments when they reached a point of discovery. When Y/N finally manipulated the water in front of her they felt so elated and proud that he basically lunged forward kissing her so passionately she let out a yelp and fell backwards. Then he would fuck her against a wall and their love-making would be so passionate she would find herself unable to get up afterwards.  
Every now and again he would take her out to dinner, marvelling at her body in her nice dresses and they would talk about everything in their lives. Soon he thought that she was the love of his life. And maybe she was. But one day turned everything upside down. In later years he sometimes regret how he had handled things - but his life had turned out alright.  
It was the day when the news of his parents’ death had reached him. He went over to her place in a daze of alcohol and grief, crying uncontrollably. The night and the day after he spent in her arms, her father once every now and again bringing food for them and shooting Y/N worried looks.  
After he left to take a shower his mind went on a tangent that he would not recover from for a while. He shut her out.  
He stopped replying to her messages, barely ever took her calls. When she was standing outside his door crying, worried sick, he would tell her he was fine and she would cry even more. Sometimes he insulted her. He was cruel and he could not feel a single thing.  
At some point, she stopped coming.  
When he recovered from the loss he tried calling her. He tried to ignore the nagging feeling in the back of his head that he had made a mistake that he wouldn’t be able to go back on.  
Her phone number had changed and was out of service.  
It took him a while to get the courage and see her father, scared of what he would say. When he did go he told him that she had moved somewhere else and she didn’t want Tony to know.  
Her father wasn’t angry at Tony, but Tony was. He hated himself for throwing away the one good thing he had in his life.  
It took him a long time to stop missing her, and even then he did not forget her.  
About two years after she disappeared, a letter reached him in which she told him that leaving was one of the best but hardest decisions in her life. She wrote that she forgave him but that she did want to leave it be. He cried while reading it. He got drunk that night and when he woke up the next day he decided he needed to stop and he moved on.  
And they didn’t see each other until that day she decided to go to his place and found the Avengers crouching behind the sofa.


	2. Chapter 2

Y/N was skipping into the kitchen where Natasha and Steve were sitting, drinking coffee, and talking about an upcoming mission they were both involved in.  
They both greeted her with a smile and a hello and Y/N opened the fridge, grabbing a smoothie. “Anyone know where Tony is?”  
Natasha just shrugged and Steve looked up.  
“I’m guessing he’s in the lab. He’s been in there for a while though, so I’m guessing something’s not quite going to plan.”  
Grabbing another smoothie Y/N left the two of them to their work and walked up the stairs to the lab. Ignoring the AC/DC that was blasting on the stereo, the first thing she did was let sunlight in, making the glass of the walls see-through again. Natasha and Steve were still in the kitchen and Y/N could see them and smiled.  
She pulled out her phone and hacked herself into the music, changing it to Tony’s favourite the Cure song.  
That’s when Bruce and Tony finally looked up. The rings under Tony’s eyes were dark purple but seeing Y/N a small, exhausted smile appeared on his lips. She walked over to him, a slight swing in her step and put the smoothie down on his desk. “Okay, Tony, time for a break.”  
Tony just turned around and basically fell into her arms. Bruce smiled awkwardly and left the lab. Y/N smiled at him and gave him a small wave.  
Tony, she led to the nearest wall, one of the glass one facing out onto the living room. She sat down and Tony just flopped onto the floor, resting his head on her lap. Looking up at her he finally smiled a bit more genuinely. Her hands weaved themselves into his hair and started playing with it.  
“Thanks for sparing me your terrible pop music.”  
Y/N laughed. “It’s not my pop music - I just put it on when I need to get you out of a rut.”  
Tony just rolled his eyes. “Either way - it sucks.”  
Y/N just chuckled. Turning her head slightly she could see that Natasha and Steve were now watching Tony and her with slightly baffled expressions. They were still not used to the way Tony was when he was around Y/N and only Y/N. He seemed like a different person.  
Tony sat up and leaned against the glass sideways, looking at her still. His head was pressed against the window and when she looked at him he just closed his eyes and groaned in exaggerated desperation.  
Y/N extended her arm and gently tugged him forwards. Tony didn’t need to be told twice and collapsed into her side, burying his face in her neck and taking a deep breath. “You got that perfume again. I like that one,” was the only thing Y/N heard. His voice was muffled and sombre.  
“I like it, too.”  
Tony sat up and leaned against the glass again. But his face was only a few inches from hers. Her iPod had switched to some Nina Simone song some time ago and he stared at her. Something changed in the air around them, the same thing that had happened so many times before. Sometimes the gravity that pulled them towards each other got more powerful than usual but they never gave in. She wanted to say something but caught by the moment her mouth just remained open. They were so close. Tony’s eyes flickered between her lips and her eyes and Y/N couldn’t take it anymore and broke the moment. She swallowed hard and cleared her throat. “Let’s get you to bed, Tony. You need to sleep. You can go back to this tomorrow morning.”  
She got up and extended her hand towards him.  
“Only if you carry me,” Tony exclaimed, and slumped over like a drama queen.  
“I’m not gonna do that. You can either sleep in your bed or here on the floor. Your choice, babe.”  
Y/N flinched slightly. The endearment had just slipped out and when Tony’s shoulder tensed she knew he had noticed as well. But the both of them just ignored it and he got up, swinging an arm around her shoulder. “At least walk me to my room?”  
“I can do that, Tony, I can do that,” Y/N said with a smile.


	3. Chapter 3

“Okay, Y/N, I have read your file and since you’re friends with Tony I think you should become a part of our team. But it wouldn’t be fair to not have you at least spar with someone first. You can fly so how about Tony jumps into his suit and we see the real deal?”  
Steve looked at her sternly but she just grinned at him, seeing right through his tough exterior.   
“I don’t know, Captain, Tony’s a big baby, I don’t know if he can take me.”   
Y/N sent Tony a devilish grin. He just shook his head and opened his mouth, hurt in his pride.   
“Oh, you’re so on, Mindgames. You’re so fucking on.”   
Everyone was waiting on the balcony of Tony’s California home and chatting, waiting for Tony. Nearly everyone was now present: Fury and Hill, Rhodey and Bucky, Steve, Natasha, Sam, Bruce, Scott, Wanda, Pietro.   
When Tony flew up and hovered in front of the balcony Y/N cracked her knuckles.   
“We’ve never done this, T. You ready to get your ass kicked?”   
“I know your powers better than anyone else here so if anyone’s gonna beat you it’s me. Let’s do this.”   
With that Y/N took off and twirled through the air for a while. They flew out into the ocean but they were still close enough for the audience to have a grasp of what was going on.   
Tony was hovering still, waiting, keeping an eye on Y/N, while the latter was flying far above him until she was in front of him.   
“Whenever you’re ready,” Steve said into the com.   
Pietro ran to the railing when he saw Y/N shoot away. She was flying fast, only leaving a faint trail of dusty pink behind her. Suddenly Tony seemed to lose his balance and was whirled sideways. That happened a few more times until Y/N appeared in front of him laughing. He started chasing her and for a whole minute they were lost to the eyes of the team, but when they came back Tony was firing and they heard them talking to each other on the coms. “I swear to god Jarvis if you actually hit her I’m gonna disassemble you,” Tony muttered into the com, audibly pissed but also concerned. “No worries, sir, I would never hurt her.”  
It was quite a spectacle, seeing Y/N flying. She had gathered all the missiles Tony had shot at her around her and they were flying by her side. When she twirled they twirled by her side and she flew right at the balcony.   
She heard Steve yell her name when one of Tony’s small calibre homing missiles aimed at her back but she just winked at him and fell gracefully into the sea below them. Everyone ran and looked down but Tony knew her better. “If I actually hit you I’m gonna kill you!” he just exclaimed and flew higher, circling the area. Soon he came closer to the surface and there was a loud bang. Something in the ocean exploded and when they looked up a giant tornado with Y/N at the top shot out of the ocean and Tony disappeared into it. When he was spat out he was tossed onto the balcony, wet and stunned. Surrounded by his teammates he opened his visor, looking very displeased. Y/N touched the ground next to him and nodded to Steve.   
“Just for the record I could’ve just done this.”   
And with that, she disassembled Tony’s suit and let him lie in a puddle of water. He immediately got up and stared at her. “You didn’t …”   
“No, I did not touch any circuits or connection points. It’s disassembled as if you actually got out.”   
Tony looked into her eyes for one more moment and then turned to Steve.   
“Can we keep her?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> very short but emotionally loaded chapter

“You like her, Stark.”   
Steve was leaning in the door of the lab where Tony was tinkering with his suit. It had been a week since Y/N appeared.   
“I thought you read the file, Rogers.”  
“Said nothing ‘bout the two of you, though. But you obviously know each other.”  
“Let me tell you something, Capsicle. Yes, I like her. I used to love her more than anything in the world. And before that she was my best friend.”   
“What the hell happened then?”  
“I fucked up really bad.”  
Steve’s expression was shocked and he was curious but decided not to prod. “Better get her back then.”   
Tony let out a dry laugh. “Sorry, Cap, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen. A lot of shit happened.”   
Steve just shrugged. “All I’m saying is that it looks like the two of you got something special. What you do with it is your choice.”  
When Steve left the room Tony let out a frustrated groan and dropped the wrench he was holding onto the table with a bang.


	5. Chapter 5

Bruce had taken a short vacation so it was just Tony in the lab. Y/N was in her usual spot on the sofa in the corner, reading a book. Somehow she had convinced Tony to listen to something else than his classic rock for one day and now Grimes was blasting from the speaker. And even though he would never admit it out loud, he actually enjoyed it. But even if he didn’t he would gladly sit through it if it meant that Y/N would stay in the lab with him. Her presence just calmed him down.   
She was sipping her coke, her foot tapping on the sofa with the beat of the music. Tony looked over to her often but returned to his work immediately when he felt his thoughts drifting to a place he hadn’t let them go in a long time; the place where he wondered what life would be like if she was his. If she could be anything for him ever again. But it was no use wondering.   
He was stuck on a little problem with a prototype suit he had started building while Bruce was gone and put their current project on hold indefinitely.   
Sighing, Tony threw the tiny screwdriver onto the table and pulled off his goggles. Y/N got up and walked over to him casually, her coke can still in her hands. Rubbing his back she looked at him questioningly. “What’s wrong?” she asked.   
He looked over at her and motioned towards the suit. “I can’t get the thrusters and the missiles to work independently from each other. It’s a new system I’ve been trying out but I can’t quite wrap my head around my own ideas. It’s frustrating as hell,” he admitted hesitantly.   
“Oh, the one you were talking to me about a few days ago? I thought you wanted to separate them and then fuse them back together?”  
He just shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that.”   
She shrugged and furrowed her brows, looking at the suit. “I know jack shit about stuff like this but maybe try to get them to work on the same circuit altogether and separate them somewhere later on in the process? I don’t know, T.”  
Tony suddenly looked at her, mouth slightly open. “You know what? That could work!”  
She looked taken aback but nonetheless pat him on the back. “I have no idea what you mean but yeah, you go and try that thing.”  
She let out a small laugh at her own ignorance concerning the matter, but he just pressed a quick kiss to her cheek and pulled his goggles on, going back to work on the wires. When he realised what he had done his face went red. Every time he got overwhelmed with passion or a sense of achievement concerning his work he fell back into old patterns. It had been so long ago but it still felt so natural to celebrate it with her near. And because they often made love in these moments he still felt the urge to kiss her every time.   
Y/N had just gone back to the sofa and to her book in a daze. The kiss had affected her as well. It always felt so natural in the first moment and then she realised that this wasn’t normal. She had been without him for longer than with him but all their little habits and rituals had engraved themselves into her brain forever.  
Tony kept working but his mind was racing. How could he feel her presence so strongly whenever she was in the room? How could she help him with a complex problem just by spouting nonsense? Why was he so relaxed when she was around? Somewhere in his brain, a small part of him was screaming at him, an incessant stream of “love, love, love, love” and at some point, it got so deafening that he looked over to where Y/N was lounging on the sofa.   
Watching her like that, the way she was lying back, her white hair flowing over the side of the seat, book held up high, one leg dangling down, moving with the beat of the music, he could feel a slight pang in his heart. She didn’t look more than a year older than back then, her powers slowing down her ageing process.  
And just like that Tony felt like he was transported back to 1995. The day before Christmas Eve. He felt the cold. He saw the snowflakes on her soft skin. And he felt her lips on his for the first time. It was the moment when Tony realised he loved Y/N. For the second time in his life. And it was no less overwhelming.   
But this time was different. He didn’t walk up to her and tell her. What they had was not pure. He had hurt her time and time again, he had driven her away from her home. And now he had the privilege of her presence again. He wasn’t ready to jeopardise it. He didn’t know if he could lose her again.


	6. Chapter 6

“You’re such a fucking asshole, Tony!” Y/N was yelling walking to the living room. Natasha and Clint turned around from where they were sitting on the sofa.  
“Sue me for having some fun!” Tony exclaimed sarcastically, following her in.  
Y/N turned around and looked at him as if he had completely lost his mind.  
“It was an undercover mission, which is already fucking impossible with your pompous ass and you fuckhead draw attention to yourself by flirting with some blonde chick which - what a fucking surprise - turns out to be a famous model who recognises you because you already banged her!”  
Y/N was yelling now. “If I hadn’t been done by that point shit could’ve gone down and I wouldn’t even have the data. But now they know that we were there. YOU FUCKED US!”  
Y/N was now right in front of him, poking a finger into his chest and some items in the kitchen started hovering. But Tony was angry at himself so he wouldn’t back down.  
So he started laughing.  
“If I remember correctly your part of the job didn’t go so perfect either. Did you or didn’t you almost trigger the security?”  
“I never said I didn’t make a mistake. But you fucking alerted the enemy to us in an undercover search and destroy mission. And all that for some woman!”  
“You’re jealous!” Tony suddenly decided to exclaim. He did honestly doubt she was, but something inside of him was burning and he didn’t know how to alleviate all this pain.  
Y/N was stunned into silence. “What the fuck, where did that come from?!” she spoke calmly but Tony could hear her bottomless confusion. When he looked over to the sofa Natasha and Clint looked at him like he had lost his mind. He could see Natasha was pissed.  
“Well, I meet some good-looking woman and you’re jealous because she’s everything you’re not.”  
Y/N stepped back a bit, her face in a grimace and then masked in utter confusion. Her voice came out in a stupefied whisper.  
“What does that have to do with anything? We’re talking about the both of us almost dying. Why the fuck would I be jealous in that situation?”  
There was dead silence in the living room while Tony just stared at Y/N. He felt self-destructive but now he realised he might have destroyed something else. The one thing that kept him alive most days.  
Y/N was still searching his face for any kind of explanation but soon just shook her head. This was beyond her capability to understand. And she didn’t want to talk to him because it was such an outrageous allegation and even if the insult wasn’t something that hurt her too much, it still stung a little. Because once upon a time he had thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world and he had shown it with words and with the way he had touched her. Did she still love him? She didn’t know. But knowing that all of their love had for once and for all disappeared drove a few tears into her eyes.  
Without another word she turned around and left the room.  
Natasha followed suit, staring Tony down and muttering “What the actual fuck, Stark.”.  
Clint left the room towards the other side but when Tony met his gaze the only thing he saw in Barton’s eyes was disdain.


	7. Chapter 7

“We’re under attack. It’s kinda … bad.”   
Y/N’s voice was crackling through the com and they could hear Bucky curse loudly and gunfire.  
Natasha, Fury, Mariah, and Tony were sitting at the SHIELD base listening in on Bucky and Y/N’s mission. They were all very anxious because the mission was not only crucial but also extremely dangerous, even for their most talented enhanced members.   
There was more commotion and Y/N swore as well, yelling something to Bucky. For a few minutes there was just gunfire and yelling. Then all of a sudden Y/N let out a piercing scream and everyone in the room looked up with their mouths open. “Y/N?! Y/N, what happened?” Tony yelled out anxiously. “Fury, we need … there was … oh my god, no!” they could hear Bucky’s terrified voice through the static that had made it impossible to understand him and then comm’s cut and they were left in deafening silence.   
No one said a word for a few very long minutes and Tony’s heart was hammering in his chest, while feeling like it didn’t exist at all. Like it had just stopped working and shattered into pieces.The next thing he saw was Fury jumping up and yelling something he couldn’t hear because there was just his hammering heartbeat and a high-pitched beep. He felt like he was going to black out. Maria looked at him and put her hands on his arm and Natasha was at Fury’s side now and they were discussing something in hushed voices. Her cheeks were red and she seemed just as worried, but she didn’t let it get to her. Y/N and Bucky were her best friends.


	8. Chapter 8

Two weeks.   
Two weeks of alcohol, no sleep, so many tears behind closed doors.   
Everyone was talking about having a funeral service. A memorial. They spoke about it in hushed voices, glimpsing around.The reinforcements couldn’t find them because the whole area had been blown up and everything was on fire.   
It was very quiet in the tower. Steve had shacked up in his room with Sam and Natasha bringing him food everyday. Tony was in his lab and Bruce was the only one who dared approach it. He often found Tony crying in some corner, muttering things to himself.   
No one had much hope. The “they could still be alive, maybe they just had to hide”s were becoming less and less frequent, and sounded less and less convinced.   
Over time, no one looked up anymore when Fury came by to tell them that he still hadn’t heard from either Y/N or Bucky. 

Until one day. That one fateful day when he ran in and said that they picked up a weak signal about 100 miles away from the original point. There was talk of old spy signals and morse codes and when Sam was running to Steve’s room, Bruce slowly made his way to the lab. Heart racing, he knocked gently and let himself in. “Tony?” he asked tentatively, looking around the dark lab. When he saw his friend hunched over on the sofa he carefully made his way over to him.“Tony? You have to listen to me. Fury said he got a signal that could be Bucky and Y/N. Tony, maybe they’re alive.”  
Tony looked up at him with tears in his eyes and a glimmer of hope before he shook his head.   
“Don’t say that.”   
Bruce knelt down in front of him and shook him.   
“We’re all gonna go. Come with us.”   
Tony just looked at him and pressed out a teary “I’m scared.”   
Bruce squeezed his shoulder and mumbled out a tired “I know. But wouldn’t you rather know than wonder what happened?” 

It took both Steve and Tony a while to get ready to leave but no one dared to rush them. When they were on the Quinjet everyone was silent, except for Fury and Mariah.   
They had gotten another message saying where to pick them up. No reinforcements needed, no suits. There was not going to be a fight. They were not to venture further into the woods away from the coordinates. Bucky then used the codeword to signify that it was him and he was not manipulated to say this.   
When they arrived everyone filed out and stood in the clearing. It was quiet and there were birds chirping. The air was cold and clear. Before long there was rustling in the bushes and Bucky walked out.   
He had dark circles under his eyes, covered in blood and his metal arm was hanging limply by his side. His hair was covered in blood and his clothes were tattered. When he spoke, his voice was raspy.   
“Everything clear?” he asked and looked at Fury with tired eyes. The latter nodded.   
Meanwhile, Tony’s mind was racing and he just wanted to know where Y/N was. Just seeing Bucky made him think the unthinkable. Bucky nodded as well and walked back into the underbrush. They heard muttering and then he reemerged, supporting Y/N. She was walking slowly, her head hanging down. Her hair was also covered in blood and singed off in places. Her hands looked raw and her face was bruised. Her clothes had holes and tears in them and she looked so much skinnier than when she left. She had worry lines engraved on her features and all the blood that stained her porcelain skin had turned a dark red.   
She looked up and Tony let out a sob. They came closer and Y/N tapped Bucky as if to say that he could let her go.   
At that moment Tony took off, running towards her when Bucky walked up to Steve, who had tears in his eyes.  
When Tony reached Y/N he stopped and took her face in his hands. “You’re okay. You’re alive. Oh god.” She just nodded and smiled before breaking out into tears. Tony quickly enveloped her in his arms and when she sank to her knees he followed her and pulled her towards him. All the while he kept mumbling a stream of ‘I love you’s and ‘I’m here. You’re safe’s.   
And Y/N could finally let go of all the pain and suffering, of all the desperation and exhaustion. Tony was crying as well, pressing her into his chest, stroking her hair, peppering kisses onto her temple and her hair.   
For 16 days he thought he would never see her again. He thought he had lost her forever. And now she was back in his arms and he never wanted to let her go again. 

He carried her into the jet and she fell asleep with her head in his lap. He was still crying, eyes averted from everyone else, stroking her hair gently, feeling her warm skin and just thanking whoever was up there that they had brought her back to him.   
He only let her go when she was brought into the medical wing. She was in there for hours and he just sat on the sofa, staring blankly. Wanda at some point walked over to him and took his hand, making him feel warm and alleviating the stress. Rhodes sat next to him for a while and just spoke to him, telling him how things were going.


	9. Chapter 9

It took about 24 hours before they let him see her. Having had a few cracked ribs and cuts, which had healed now, the exhaustion was the thing that had kept her fast asleep for the better part of that time.   
When he walked in, Y/N was sitting in the hospital bed in white pyjamas, the palms of her hands bandaged and her hair cut slightly shorter, to where it had been burned off.   
She looked tired but when he walked in she smiled so genuinely that his heart hurt and he almost started crying again.   
“Hey there,” she said, voice slightly raspy.   
“Hey yourself,” he mumbled, forcing a smile. She scooted over and pat the side of her bed. He sat down and started wringing his hands in his lap, looking away from her.   
After a few moments, she just placed her hands on his and he stopped. “Look at me, Tony,” she murmured. Hearing her say his name stung in his heart. But he did look up.   
When their eyes met, there was a brief moment of complete silence. Not only in the room, but in Tony’s mind. There was nothing to think, nothing to do.  
“Are you okay?” she asked gently. He looked at his hands again and shook his head. Then he nodded. Finally, he looked up. “Listen, Y/N. I need to say all of this out loud so it finally stops hurting. When you … when you were cut off I felt my world shatter. I didn’t know what happened. I thought you were … dead.”   
He took a deep breath. “I was … a wreck, I was dead to the world for the two weeks you were gone. Just the thought of you not being here. You not teasing me, you not hanging out with me and playing your music while I work, your laugh not echoing through the tower. The thought of my life without you was unbearable.”  
He paused a few moments and scooted away from her.  
“I know that I have done terrible things. Back when my father died. I know what I did to you, driving you out of your own home, shutting you out. I would never, ever ask you to take me back. Never. But I need you to know that I love you. With such an all-encompassing, honest sincerity that it scares me a bit. I love you. And I need you to know.”  
When he stopped he let out a long breath and started rubbing his face, unable to look at her. His heart was racing.   
Suddenly he felt her soft hands on his. There was bandage scraping against his skin.   
He removed his hands from his face and he looked up at her in shock. She then took his face gently into her hands and ran her thumb over his cheek, down to his lips.   
He shuddered and his heart was aching at the familiarity. He felt tugged back into the past and also right into the future.   
For a moment she just let her forehead rest against his, closing her eyes. He did as well and he kept them closed when he felt her lips against his, ever so gentle. But it was the same. Those were the lips he had known so well, explored a million times. Everything came crashing down on him and then it was quiet. He moved his hand to the back of her neck and kissed her more insistently. And like she always had, she asked for entry by gently nipping at his bottom lip. And he granted her tongue to enter his mouth. He couldn’t help but gently laugh against her lips. She laughed as well and pulled away, only to press kiss all over his face, which only made him smile more.   
It did not feel like the past anymore. Everything now felt like the future, and that whatever happened, she would be by his side. She still had his face in her hands when she looked at him sternly.   
“Tony Stark, as much as I wish I could say this was a lie, I have to tell you that I’ve never loved anyone as much you in my life. My mum used to always go on and on about how if I met the one, I’d know. And I didn’t realise when I first met you, but I did when I left. And … I said it before, and I will say it again. I forgive you. And I love you. I love you more than I can even begin to understand.”   
Y/N then yawned and Tony just guided her back to a sleeping position on her back. He lay down next to her on his side, her legs automatically hooking themselves over his. Her face dropped toward him and he buried his face in her hair. He took her hand and let their joined ones rest on her stomach. And so everyone else found them. Fast asleep from exhaustion. And everyone smiled and felt like this was how it was meant to be.


	10. Chapter 10

It was New Year’s Eve and the living room of the Avengers tower was packed with people in sequinned dresses and smart suits, sipping champagne or dancing.   
Tony had a quiet moment for himself, standing by the bar, observing his party proudly. Almost everyone was here and the whole team was strewn across the room. He was about to throw a sarcastic remark to Steve who was walking past him when the latter pointed behind Tony.   
When he turned around he saw Y/N coming down the stairs.   
Her (y/h/c) hair was curled and fell down her back and shoulders in loose curls. She wore a black, long-sleeved bodycon dress and some black heels.   
She walked into the room and suddenly everyone else paled in comparison. All the fancy, colourful cocktail dresses, all the sequins were nothing compared to how she looked in a simple black dress.   
Tony sucked in a breath when he let his eyes wander. It hugged her every curve so flawlessly.   
When she spotted him a smile spread across her lips and he couldn’t help but bring a hand up to his face and laugh.   
When she was within reach he extended his hand, still grinning like a fool. She took it and he spun her in so close to him that their foreheads were touching.   
“This might be a mistake but, Tony, I have to tell you that you look so incredibly handsome tonight,” Y/N murmured with a lazy smile on her lips. Her hands found their way to his chest and they wandered over his shoulders to the hair in the nape of his neck.   
He shuddered under her touch and let his hands slowly roam down the side of her torso to her lower back. “And you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes upon. And you know what’s unbelievable? That I’m yours.”  
She could feel his hot breath on her lips and her eyelids fluttered when he applied more pressure to her back with his hand. Every one of his touches held so much meaning. Every single one of them made her skin tingle and her heart skip a beat.   
Every inch of her body was pressed up against his and when Tony’s eyes flickered down to her lips again she couldn’t hold back anymore and she pulled him into a searing kiss. Tony’s head was spinning and his heart was racing. After all this time she could still take his breath away with one kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the end of this little story! Tony just needs some more happy endings, the poor man. Thank you for reading and please let me know what you thought or if you have any feedback x


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